In the Court of Appeals Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-23-00151-CR

BRANDON JOREL SCOTT, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 6th District Court Lamar County, Texas Trial Court No. 28823

Before Stevens, C.J., van Cleef and Rambin, JJ.

Memorandum Opinion by Justice van Cleef MEMORANDUM OPINION Brandon Jorel Scott was convicted of possession of less than one gram of a controlled substance1 and was sentenced to two years’ incarceration, suspended in favor of five years’ community supervision. After Scott pled true to the State’s motion to revoke his community supervision and agreed to waive his right of appeal in connection with a plea agreement in two other matters,2 the trial court sentenced Scott to two years’ incarceration. The trial court also certified that Scott had waived his right of appeal.

Even though Scott waived his right of appeal, he nevertheless, acting pro se, filed a notice of appeal. “A court of appeals lacks jurisdiction over and must dismiss an appeal when the defendant has validly waived his right of appeal.” Lopez v. State, 595 S.W.3d 897, 899 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2020, pet. ref’d) (citing Jones v. State, 488 S.W.3d 801, 808 (Tex. Crim. App. 2016)); see also Freeman v. State, 913 S.W.2d 714 (Tex. App.—Amarillo 1995, pet. ref’d).

We informed Scott of this apparent defect in our jurisdiction over his appeal and afforded him an opportunity to respond and, if possible, cure such defect. Scott did not respond to our letter.

TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE ANN. § 481.115(b) (Supp.).

Those matters are on appeal under our cause numbers 06-23-00150-CR and 06-23-00152-CR.

Because Scott has no right of appeal as a result of his valid waiver of the right of appeal and because the trial court’s certification correctly indicates that he is without a right of appeal, we dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.

Charles van Cleef Justice Date Submitted: October 3, 2023 Date Decided: October 4, 2023 Do Not Publish